Book Review: The Lost Girls by Heather Young

Who loves a bit of family drama? But only when it’s not your own, right? Get your fox with this next book.

Goodreads Blurb

The Lost Girls by Heather Young

In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family—her father commits suicide, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child.

Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine. For Justine, the lake house offers freedom and stability—a way to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the home she never had. But the long Minnesota winter is just beginning. The house is cold and dilapidated. The dark, silent lake is isolated and eerie. Her only neighbor is a strange old man who seems to know more about the summer of 1935 than he’s telling.

Soon Justine’s troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emily’s disappearance, her mother arrives to steal her inheritance, and the man she left launches a dangerous plan to get her back. In a house haunted by the sorrows of the women who came before her, Justine must overcome their tragic legacy if she hopes to save herself and her children.

Review

I was immediately drawn in by the blurb. A lost child. 1935. Sounds like a really creepy story. It was in its own way – and I don’t mean that as an insult. While I was waiting for something sinister, like a serial killer or a child abducter lurking in the trees, what actually happened Emily was much more disturbing. But, of course, I’m not going to spoil that for you.

The chapters where Lucy tells her story are the most interesting. It’s a different time to get lost in and it’s where the juicy details are revealed. What makes it even more intriguing is that none of the characters are very likeable, actually getting worse as the story progresses. That’s not to say the characters in the present time are more appealing. While I felt for Justine, I didn’t really connect with her. I didn’t find her story as interesting either. While it was clear to see some mirroring in the different family generations, I would have expected more digging and investigating from her based on what I read in the blurb.

Still, whatever happened in the alternating timelines, it was enjoyed to keep me going and I finished The Lost Girls quite swiftly.

If you would like to pick up a copy of The Lost Girls, you can do so here. If you would like to learn more about the author, check out my previous review.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.